Quote:
Originally Posted by _____V_____
Moving on...
Do you remember your first induction into the world of
1 - Do you remember when you first watched it? Theater, VHS, DVD?
2 - Did you get any feedback (from friends or media) prior to watching it?
3 - How was the viewing experience?
4 - How many times have you rewatched it since?
5 - Any memories associated with it, that you wish to share? |
1 - Do you remember when you first watched it? Theater, VHS, DVD?
Okay...well I got it on DVD when I was about 17 and hadn't seen it before. What I'd expected was basically a horror film from the start and what turned out to be at first a pretty mediocre and colour-by-number thriller (by Hitchcock standards) and never actually made it to Norman and all that. (I was a lot less patient with my films back then). I knew stuff was in there, just couldn't be bothered to wait and was completely thrown off by the different tact the film took at the begining.
I now realise that Hitchcock intended the opposite since he was considered a director of thrillers rather than horror and he wanted people to be shocked when he killed off the "star" some fourty minutes into the film.
I saw the whole thing start-to-finish just a little over a year ago. I was studying music at university and one of the classes was Music In Film where we studied some of the works of Bernard Hermann. There's a facility at the university called The Void which is a lecture hall/screening room (imagine an average screening room for an inependent cinema with fold-out desks) and one of the films we watched was Psycho and I liked it when it was pulled together. Anthony Perkins (especially in the film's epilogue) provides one of my all-time favourite acting performances.
2 - Did you get any feedback (from friends or media) prior to watching it?
Well everyone knows the shower scene and I knew about things like Norman Bates and the Ed Gein connection, but it was sort of like loose pieces from a jogsaw puzzle if you see what I mean. I just didn't quite know how they were put together.
3 - How was the viewing experience?
I mentioned above. Boring when I tried to watch it the first few times (tbh, I'm still not that thrilled about it now) but it's all worth it once Anthony Perkins turns up. Controversially though, I still prefer The Birds which I consider Hitchcock's only "true" horror film (Psycho and his often overlooked penultimate film Frenzy both have elements of horror but I sort of still consider them both thillers...although the line is blurred with Psycho.)
4 - How many times have you rewatched it since?
I've seen the whole thing 3 times.
5 - Any memories associated with it, that you wish to share?
I think I've said all I needed to.